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Former Twin Danny Santana, a .256 career hitter with 13 HRs and 100 RBIs in five seasons.

 

Wet, cold, nasty, dreary, washed away.

No, that’s not the forecast for the Rangers 2019 season. It was just last night’s weather in Arlington and it rained out the Texas Rangers game against the Oakland Athletics.

It would have been the Texas debut of second baseman Danny Santana, who was called up to take the place of Rougned Odor, who suffered a mysterious knee injury stretching in the clubhouse before Friday night’s game.

Santana was called up because the Rangers regular backup second baseman, Logan Forsythe, is now playing first because their regular first baseman, Ronald Guzman, pulled a hamstring and is out, and because the Rangers didn’t have a true backup first baseman. The team is roster-constructionally challenged.

The twenty-eight-year-old Santana came up as an outfielder in with the Twins in 2014. He had a pretty good rookie season, finishing seventh in American League Rookie of the Year voting on the strength of batting .319 with an OPS of .824.

Since then, he hasn’t been able to find much consistency. After bottoming out early in 2017, Minnesota traded him to Atlanta.

In parts of the last two seasons as a Brave, Santana hit .199 in 171 at-bats, with three home runs, scattered over 84 games.

Think of him as a right-handed Joey Gallo without power. He strikes out a awful lot, especially for someone without much thump. But he’s versatile defensively, logging major league hours in all three outfield positions, as well as second, third and short.

Odor is expected to be out for a while. He won’t even be evaluated for two more weeks, so Santana should get a lot of playing time.

Welcome, Danny Santana. More exciting than rain.

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TODAY’S GAME:

Brett Anderson (3-0, 2.50) vs. Adrian Sampson (0-1, 1.86)
Game time: 2:05